Kwinana Public Library has taken home a major win from the Library Board of WA’s innovation and collaboration awards at the State Library this month.

It received the award for its kids clothing swap program.

The clothing swap started as a pilot program in April 2025 with 48 families and has grown into a keystone school holiday program, with 621 people participating across four sessions in the past year.

The range of sizes was expanded over time based on family feedback to accommodate donations for ages 0 to 12 years.

Mayor Peter Feasey said the program brought families together in a safe and comfortable way to keep clothes out of landfill and meet community needs.

“The library worked with families at an early literacy program to develop a format suitable for Kwinana’s community,” Mr Feasey said.

“Many barriers were removed by making the program free, adjusting times of pick-ups to meet community needs, not requiring families to donate to be able to take clothes, and donating the remaining clothes to local organisations.”

In one year, there has been a 150 per cent increase in the number of people donating clothes and a 500 per cent increase in the number of families taking clothes, with 562kg of textiles being diverted from landfill so far.

Educational materials were also developed with the city’s environment and waste team to encourage families to use natural sustainable fabrics over “fast fashion”.

The Kwinana Public Library received $5000 as part of the award. Judges said they were most impressed with the value-add aspect of the program, making a strong new connection between the public library and its community.

They said the program not only supported families in accessing good quality clothing in a safe and comfortable way, but also delivered engaging messages about sustainability and the importance of recycling.

“Libraries are well known for their role in circularity through loaning books, toys, and other materials, and for being a place of community connection,” Mr Feasey said.

“The kids clothes swap program has been a creative way to utilise these strengths to address the environmental problem of textile waste.”